U.S. News

Saturday, Oct. 24, 1998

Candidate accused of killing incumbent

Tennessee state Senate race left with one man on ballot, and he's charged with murder

By RICK BRAGG
Associated Press

   MONTEREY, Tenn. - In rural, rugged middle Tennessee, the race for a state Senate seat has been altered by a single bullet, and the surviving candidate in District 15 will watch the outcome from jail.
   Tommy Burks, the popular incumbent Democrat who was expected to win easily, is dead and buried. Burks, 58, was shot in the forehead Monday at his 1,000-acre hog farm outside the little town of Monterey, not far from his pumpkin patch.
   The crime left just one name on the ballot in the Nov. 3 election, that of the Republican challenger, Byron (Low Tax) Looper, who was arrested Friday morning and charged with murder in connection with Burks' death.
   Because state law does not allow a dead person to appear on the ballot, but does allow a person charged but not convicted of a felony to appear on it, only Looper's name will confront shaken citizens when they enter the voting booths.
   Suddenly, negative television ads, name-calling and mud-slinging do not seem so bad, people here say.
   "It's hard to believe," said Putnam County Executive Doug McBroom, a Democrat who, like others in his party and an embarrassed Republican Party, said they would support the write-in candidacy of Charlotte Burks, the incumbent's widow.
   "This is supposed to be a system of the people, for the people," McBroom said. "Something this bad, it strikes at the heart of that system."
   Others were more blunt.
   "If he did it, they should string him up," said Patricia Hassler, who owns an antique shop in Monterey.
   Looper, 34, who had his middle name legally changed from Anthony to (Low Tax) to reflect his political philosophy, was in the Cumberland County Jail on Friday, awaiting an arraignment, as people wondered whether simple politics was enough to motivate a murder.
   "We feel real comfortable we've got the right person," said Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess, although he and other investigators would not say what evidence they had linking Looper to the crime, or what motive - beyond political gain - he might have had.
   In fact, no one has an explanation. But people here said that Looper's political career, though still new, had seemed self-destructive from the start.
   

Absence raised suspicions

   Looper, the controversial Putnam County tax assessor who is under indictment on charges of theft and misuse of office and is the defendant in a paternity suit, was arrested about 1:15 a.m. Friday by a deputy sheriff who had been assigned to stake out his home in Cookeville.
   Looper had last been seen Sunday night, the night before Burks' body was found in the cab of his pickup truck, a small bullet hole in his forehead. As late as Thursday night, investigators had refused to call Looper a suspect, saying they only wanted him for questioning.
   But around this part of the upper Cumberland, where Burks made many friends and allies during three decades in politics, people soon became suspicious.
   A dark blue car like the Chevrolet that Looper drives was seen at the farm that morning, as Burks prepared his farm for a field trip by a local elementary school. The children were coming to see the pumpkins.
   It was Looper's absence, more than anything, that made people suspicious. Four days passed without a word from him. If he had nothing to do with the crime, then why was he in hiding, people here said they wondered.
   "It doesn't look good," said Monterey Mayor Jack Phillips.
   "It sure doesn't," said Clinton Wright, who was visiting with the mayor.
   Phillips, like others here, wondered why Looper never called the Burks family to offer sympathy. It was, people here said, bad manners at the very least. Looper's lawyer, Lionel Barrett of Nashville, was apparently the only person who spoke with him during his absence. Barrett said he spoke with his client again Friday but offered no insight into where he had been or why he had been missing.
   Meanwhile, Democrats - and some Republicans who said they disapproved of Looper's behavior in office - drafted Charlotte Burks to run.
   "Write-in campaigns are hard," said Phillips, "but I think she can win." He, and others who know District 15 politics, say they doubt Looper can be elected. Phillips has donated his mayoral salary, all $500 of it for this year, he said with a smile, to Charlotte Burks' campaign.
   All over Putnam County, people wave placards at the roadside to urge support for the write-in campaign.
   

A popular incumbent

   Until the slaying, it had not been shaping up as much of a race. Looper's campaign attracted little attention, and there seemed no bad blood between the candidates, people here said.
   On one side there was the gray-haired Burks, who people here say they cannot remember ever seeing in a suit and tie.
   "You'd see him in his rubber work boots, after slopping his hogs," Hassler said. "He was one of us. He was a good man, probably the only honest one we had."
   His politics, in the state House and Senate, sometimes put him at odds with his own party, and sometimes aligned him with Republicans. He fought against abortion and gambling, and for victims' rights.
   He made his most controversial stand two years ago when he sponsored a bill that would have required the firing of teachers who taught evolution as fact. The bill failed.
   But here in his district, he was far from controversial. Most people thought as he did, Hassler said. He voted their will, she said.
   

Long-troubled opponent

   On the other side was Looper, a candidate who, even before the events of this week, seemed in deep trouble.
   Born in Tennessee, he was a student at West Point until a knee injury forced him to take an honorable discharge in 1985, the Associated Press reported. He moved to Georgia, where he ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature at 23. He was a legislative aide, then reportedly lived for a while in Puerto Rico.
   He won his job as tax assessor in what many people here described as a negative campaign two years ago, promising to fight for lower taxes.
   But quickly his career was marked by accusations of scandal, including charges that he had offered tax breaks to land developers in return for political contributions. The accusations led to Looper's indictment in March on charges of theft and misuse of office - charges he denied. He is awaiting trial.
   When one developer turned down his offer, the indictment said, he increased a tax assessment on the developer's parents.
   He is also being sued by a former girlfriend who said he fathered her baby and once tried to transfer ownership of her home to himself by faking a deed.
   In a press release after the woman filed suit, Looper said she "left me with heart palpitations, a small box of memorabilia and a red G-string."
   His manner bothered many here. "His attitude was that we're all dumb, and he was here to save us," McBroom said. He talked down to Democrats, and promised favors to his Republican constituents, people here said.
   He fired employees and insulted co-workers, courthouse workers said.
   "He thought he was the smart one, but he kept getting caught," McBroom said.
   Looper said he was being persecuted because he was a Republican, in a county dominated by Democrats.
   

Few supporters found

   Finding people to speak up for him is hard. One woman in Cookeville acknowledged voting for him, but begged not to have her name used in connection with him.
   His race for the state Senate seemed to make no sense. He ran unopposed in the primary, because state Republican Party officials did not believe anyone could unseat Burks. The party did not endorse Looper because of his history, state party leaders said this week.
   It is possible, but unlikely, that he could win.
   Write-in candidates almost always fail, but voters said this is an unusual case.
   "I think she will win," said Phillips of Charlotte Burks, who has had little to say publicly about her campaign. The voters, Phillips and others here said, will vote their broken hearts, and their outrage.
   

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